By the time the 2011 General Assembly opened, Colorado regained its position of having the highest percentage of women serving in the legislature of any state in the nation.

And the women serving at the Capitol think that’s a good thing.

“Many of us have spent a portion of our lives as caregivers; we are also natural communicators and listeners,” said Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland. “We bring a perspective conducive to hearing all sides of an issue, which helps build consensus — a much sought-after quality under the golden dome.”

Last year’s election of new lawmakers, resignations of veterans and selections of their replacements resulted in women now holding 41 of the 100 legislative seats.

Colorado now has more female lawmakers than at any time in history.

Not bad for a state where, in the late 1970s, women launched a fight to join their male colleagues in having a rest room just off the House floor.

“We had to run across the hall to another restroom, sometimes in the middle of a vote,” said former Rep. Betty Neale, a Denver Republican who in 1977 became the first woman from the House appointed to the Joint Budget Committee.

“I’m just very proud of Colorado with all these women lawmakers,” Neale said.

Nearly half of the Senate is female: 17 women to 18 men. And in the Senate Democrat caucus, 14 of the 20 members are women. In the House, women hold 24 of the 65 seats.

But for all the “You go, girl” talk, rarely is the Capitol divided men vs. women on an issue. The tough fights tend to break along party lines.

“I think what we’ve achieved is monumental, but I think women need to do a better job of supporting each other,” said Senate President pro tem Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood.

“We need to learn to be a force,” she said.

Colorado had the highest percentage of female lawmakers in 2009 as well. New Hampshire took the lead in 2010 but didn’t even crack the Top 5 this year, as a number of Democratic women lost to Republican men, said Katie Fischer Ziegler, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The group reports that the percentage of women serving in state legislatures decreased slightly from 24.5 percent in 2010 to 23.4 percent this year.

In 1893, Colorado became the first state in which women got the right to vote through popular election. (Wyoming women had previously been granted the right to vote by the territorial legislature but not by popular vote.) The following year, Colorado elected the first three women to serve in a state legislature.

“Colorado has a long tradition of leading the nation in the percentage of women in the legislature,” said Laura Hoeppner, director of the Colorado Legislative Women’s Caucus.

Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen, said when she moved to Colorado in 1975, she was struck by how open the state was, adding that that might be why it has a higher percentage of female lawmakers.

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